Earth-691
Overview Earth-691 is the native timeline of Killraven and the Guardians of the Galaxy. For a complete list of articles realted to Earth-691, see Category:Earth-691 History At some point centuries ago, an alien race came to reside on Earth's near neighbor, Mars. These aliens would come to be known to humans as the Martian Masters. Though their civilization prospered there for centuries, their resources eventually began to dwindle. This proved convenient to the reality- and time-travelling Immortus, who felt that this Earth's technological development had progressed too quickly. Travelling to Mars during the late nineteenth century, Immortus turned the Martians' attentions toward Earth. On Saturday, June 29, 1901, the Martians launched an invasion of Earth that has since become known as the War of the Worlds. Though man's most powerful weapons proved useless against the Martians with their mechanical tripods and heat rays, the invaders were brought down by terrestrial bacteria by early July. Following the Invasion, humanity mostly blocked out the trauma of the war, rebuilt, and history progressed in much the same way as on Earth-616. History progressed in a similar manner through to the 1970s, including the occurence of World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and the Age of Heroes. The economic depression of the 1970's, with a constantly rising cost of living, would mark the rapid deterioration of western civilization from that point on. Rather than encouraging the populace to reduce the rapid consumption at the heart of the depression, world leaders opted instead for the rapid proliferation of nuclear fission plants to power more factories to produce more inferior goods from quickly-dwindling natural resources. Technological progress soon outpaced Earth-616 once again. In the early 1980s, all non-essential funding was shifted to bionics, primarily in an effort to find replacements for limbs destroyed by cancerous sunlight. Farms were moved in-doors, and the use of hydroponics to cultivate food stocks from chemicals began to slowly edge out more natural farming methods. Traditional schooling methods were supplanted in favor of pre-recored, audio-visual lessons undergone at the student's pace in individual cubicles, while teachers did little more than change the tapes. The mural-phonics system, which allowed the audience to see, hear, and even experience the sensations of its subjects through virtual-reality helmets, became the dominant entertainment medium. Militarily, the superpowers continued to research and construct nuclear and biological weapons. A lunar base was established, and at least one mission was successfully landed on Mars (though it is unknown if there was any reaction by the Martian Masters). Before the majority of its funding was diverted to bionics research, NASA launched Project Starjump -- an effort to launch a single human, whose life would be prolonged by periodically-interrupted cryogenic suspension, to Alpha Centauri -- as its last major effort in 1988, with Major Vance Astro as the pilot. By this time the Bionics Wars -- vast mobilizations of cyborg armies competing for scarce resources and food stocks -- were already raging across the globe. In 1995, a thermonuclear reactor -- one of the many fusion reactors embraced by nations and corporations after 1993, despite popular opposition -- exploded as a result of cyborg fighting. The resulting explosion rendered Western Canada uninhabitable, and worldwide public outcry threatened a massive revolution if the nations could not end the senseless violence. The Bionics Wars formally ended in that same year with the signing of the Treaty of Peking and the formation of the first Confederation of Nations. By the late 1990s, high-speed Transbelt Conveyors became the primary mode of overland shipping and travel. Even more sophisticated artifical reality and sensation systems were developed: Cinderella was re-released in a sensory-stimulating version in 1996, and the octo-tympanum-viewscope -- a fully-immersive system which combined musical tracks with solid-holographic imagery and emotional stimulation -- was developed in 1998. In 1999, anti-mutant histeria gripped the world and led to the construction of an army of upgraded, highly powerful Sentinels. The Sentinels decimated the mutant population, killing many in what would become known as the Great Injustice. A band of mutants under Magneto's leadership, known as the X-Iles, abandonned the Earth to escape destruction. The group first settled on Jupiter's moon Europa, establishing a city under the northern magnetic pole, but eventually left the solar system for the planet Haven. Namor conclusively ended the Great Injustice by sending the sentinels to a watery end. On the night of June 29, 2001, the Martian's launched Attack II, the second attempt to invade the Earth. The Martians' initial assault simultaneously destroyed all human stockpiles of nuclear arms, assuring that not one nuclear weapon would be fired in the course of the war. By morning the Martians had begun dismantling transportation systems. Terran forces used biological weapons against the invaders, only to discover that they had developed a general-purpose immunity. While the Martians sought to keep as many humans alive as possible for food, labor, and entertainment, the biological weapons deployed during the assault killed or mutated many. Armies conducted counter-attacks, and civilians either rose in defense or fled. The second assault -- skirmishes with pockets of resistance, civilian freedom fighters, and remaining superheros such as Captain America and Spider-Man -- lasted into 2006, but the initial assault had been so devastating that the event soon became known as the One Night War. Led by a powerful High Overlord, The Martian Masters enslaved most of the population, as labor in converting Terran edifices to new uses, guards for their fortresses, or even as simple chattle. Some were drafted as Gladiators to fight for the Martian Masters' amusement, while others were trained as Exterminators to hunt down the last freemen threatening Martian rule. The Martians were particularly interesting in coopting scientists, many of whom became Keepers, collaborators responsible for overseeing their fellow humans. In 2014, the gladiator Killraven escaped from captivity, and soon became the leader of a particularly troublesome band of freemen. Despite any hopes humanity held for a savior, the Martian force would not depart until 2075, having finally depleted Earth's resources. With the Martians gone, humanity was free, but barbarous. Societies soon formed around independent city states ruled by techno-barons, who controlled the fruits of scientific progress. In 2188, one such techno-baron named Isaac Harkov developed a theoretical means of faster-than-light travel. For the most part, though, the techno-barons fought among themselves for territory and other prizes. At some point, the serfs rebelled against the techno-barons, refusing to fight for possession of the Moon. By 2525 Kwall, the last of the techno-barons, was killed by the serfs, ending the Age of Government. Lines of communiation were re-established among city states, who then established the second World Federation. This ushered in the Age of Corporations. In 2850, Harkov's texts resurfaces, and in 2900, the fuel necessary to implement Harkov's theory of faster-than-light travel was found in quantity at Mercury's core, and dubbed "Harkovium." By this time humanity had spread to several planets within the solar system, using genetic engineering to modify humans to survive in the harsh environments of Mercury, Jupiter, and Pluto. Humans engineered to withstand extreme heat and light operated the mining colony on Mercury. Massive, dense humans were engineered to survive Jovian gravity. Humans were altered into a crystaline, silicon-based form to survive on the manufacturing colony of Mercury. Uninhabitable Venus became home to thermo-electric planets which transmitted power to Earth and its lunar colony via laser relays. In 2908, the first Harkovian starship, Andromeda, was constructed, but lost on its maiden voyage. In 2940 a Harkovite fleet was launched for Alpha Centauri trinary star system. There human kind established it's first friendly contact with an alien race: blue-skinned, pre-industrial beings on the planet Centauri IV, a planet orbitting the Beta Centuari star. In 3000, Earth, its colonies, and Centauri IV joined as equals under the United Federation of Earth. In 3006, Vance Astro's ship (all attempts to reach him before this point having failed) finally reached the Alpha Centauri system, where he was dismayed to learn faster-than-light travel had rendered his mission pointless. This is considered the height of the Golden Age of humanity. In 3007, the peace was shattered by the invading Badoon (another race manipulated by Immortus). The Badoon would come to completely destroy the human colonies, killing all. On the final push for Earth, the Badoon easily overwhelmed the inferior fleet of the United Land of Earth, and killed and enslaved millions as the conquered the planet. Guided by the unseen hand of Starhawk, a sole survivor from each colony, along with Vance Astro, sole survivor of the twentieth century, banded together to resist the Badoon as the Gaurdians of the Galaxy. Eventually, the group learned that the Badoon sexes had a natural loathing of one another. The warlike Brotherhood of the Badoon resided on one planet, while the contemplative Sisterhood of the Badoon resided on another, with neither meeting the other except for a once-in-a-lifetime mating period. The Guardians sought out the Sisterhood, who travelled to Earth to take the males into custody. With the Badoon gone, the Guardians found that Earth offered little for them, and re-dedicated the group as an interstellar enterprise, primarily funded by the sale of historical docu-chip Vance made of the group's time-travelling encounters with with being from Age of Heroes, such as the Avengers. Among their many adventures was the so-called "Shield Quest", in which the team (at Vance's urging) followed rumor, myth, and legend to ultimately find the long-lost shield of Captain America. Notes * Bionics as used above referes to the popular, 1980s notion of bionics, as robotic replacements to biological structures, such as limbs and organs. * It was first given this designation in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe - Alternate Universes 2005. The name is derived from the cover date of the first story set in this reality, Marvel Super-Heroes v1 #18 (January 1969). * While there is a Dargo in this reality, it has not been established whether he is the same one that has appeared in the Thor and Thor Corps stories. * Some sources claim that the first interstellar mission was launched for Alpha Centauri, while Yondu's people are frequently cited as being from Beta Centauri. These are actually two completely different star systems. It's most likely that the writers confused Beta Centauri (a binary star system) for Alpha Centauri B, the second star in the trinary Alpha Centauri star system. * There are frequently contradictory dates presented in the timeline of Earth-691 (mostly arising in Guardians of the Galaxy). Some writers have retconned away the errors to bad record keeping or corrupt data in the historical record. In one Gaurdians of the Galaxy issue, Starhawk claimed that there are slight differences in the timeline each time he relives his life, suggesting that the timeline is in fact slowly being warped (possibly an early form of the "sliding timeline" notion). Related Articles * Guardians of the Galaxy * Killraven's Freemen * Killraven (Earth-619) Trivia * By their own admission, even the authors of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe have no idea when this reality separated. Most agree that the timeline had definitely split from Earth-616 by 1982. External links * Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe index of articles on Earth-691 characters * Marvel Chronology Project page for Earth-691 character appearances * MCP discussion of the relationship between the Killraven and Guardians of the Galaxy stories, focusing on the role of Mars * Guardians of the Galaxy message board, with all realities on-topic * Partial timelines of Earth-691, from the ancient past through 2000 and 2001-3000, assuming inclusion of Dargo and a divergence point (since disproven) of Marvel Two-in-One #69 References * Earth-000691 Earth-000691 Category:Earth-691 Category:Image Needed Category:Copy Edit